THE RECONCILIATION preparation committee is ready to start its reconciliation effort with its assisting panels set to commence their assignments by engaging political parties in the sharing of ideas on conflict resolution, said Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan, who supervised the committee’s first meeting yesterday.

Eleven reference issues to help frame the discussion were tabled and endorsed at the meeting.

The gathering of opinions and the “agreement of truth” draft are expected to be completed in April, the deputy PM said.

The agreement will be the “social contract” that all conflicting parties must abide by regardless of its legal bindingness, Prawit said. It is unclear whether the parties will have to sign the contract, but the deputy PM has said that they will be bound by social pressure.

The four assisting panels met for the first time yesterday at the Defence Ministry. The four panels are opinion gathering, integration, implementation planning, and public relations.

At the meeting, Prawit appointed as the respective heads of the panels defence permanent secretary General Chaichan Changmonkol, Supreme Commander General Surapong Suwana-adth, Commander-in- Chief General Chalermchai Sithisart, and defence ministry spokesman Maj-General Kongcheep Tantrawanich.

Besides the high-ranking military officers, each of the assisting panels has at least nine experts included. The initial list shown yesterday includes prominent academics such as the rector of Thammasat University, Somkit Lertpaithoon, Chulalongkorn University-based political scientist and economist Supachai Yavapraphas, Trakool Meechai, and Pasuk Phongpaichit.

Prawit said that the conflicting parties invited to provide opinions for the reconciliation agreement would have some degree of freedom to voice any concerns so long as they were not against the constitution and had the potential to lead to unrest.

‘No coup’

Asked whether the agreement would prohibit another coup, Prawit, a key man in the junta-formed National Council for Peace and Order, said that the Army’s officers had no inclination to stage another coup.

He defended the 2014 power seizure, saying it took place because the public demanded the action and could have resulted in senior officers being put on death row.

Maj-General Kongcheep laid out the details of the reconciliation assisting panels. He said the 11 reference issues were designed to help the conflicting parties find a common ground, deliver conflict resolution, and move the country forward. The topics include politics, inequality, law and justice, differences, and national strategy.

The first steps of the process begin on Tuesday, with the political parties invited to a roundtable meeting, Kongcheep said, adding that discussions would take place every weekday after that date until the process was completed.

Aside from the key players at the national level, such as political parties or political groups, a parallel opinion-gathering effort will be carried out at the provincial level, the spokesman said.

That effort will be spearheaded by regional commanders, senior police and provincial governors, Kongcheep said.

Kongcheep stressed that the government was sincere about achieving reconciliation and hoped that every party would cooperate so that was achieved.